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Chrome: Welcome to the World of IE

Google has had it easy for the last few years. Everyone seems to love this cuddly company with the kooky name. Its new browser, Chrome, is beginning to change all that. Fact is, Google is gaining more power and reach -- and with that comes controversy and criticism.

Let's start with Chrome. Soon after the beta came out, security researchers reported a denial of service vulnerability. The same day, a researcher demonstrated how a "malformed URL" could take the browser down. All this a day after the beta came out!

Then there's this: The original license gave Google the rights to anything you might create with Chrome. That didn't go over too big.

And there are still fears about how much Google knows about us -- and, more importantly, will know. For example, some believe that Google does deep-packet inspection, letting it see everything we do on the Web. I'm not sure about this deep-packet inspection, but I do know that Google isn't backing down from things like Street View, which lets strangers see what's going on in your yard and sometimes right inside your own house.

As you'll see in our Mailbag, Redmond Report readers have mixed feelings about Chrome. Some see it as fast, simple and slick. Others complain about the lack of features and how it isn't that friendly with some Microsoft technologies. Who would have thought? More Chrome impressions welcome at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on September 08, 2008


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